VMware merges vCloud, Nicira to chase software defined data center
Summary: The company will launch VMware NSX, a combination of vCloud and Nicira technology, in the second half of 2013 to aim at the software defined data center. — VMware said it will merge its vCloud networking …
Context & Ripple Effects
VMware's Nicira move had already helped trigger a competitive response: Cisco's VCider acquisition for distributed cloud networking was described as answering VMware's earlier software-defined networking purchase. VMware had also signaled support for OpenStack, placing its cloud strategy alongside an open infrastructure initiative.
NSX turns the vCloud networking and Nicira technologies into a single planned product, making networking a named component of VMware's software-defined data-center pitch rather than a separate acquisition story.
First-order effects
- VMware will package vCloud networking and Nicira technology as VMware NSX in the second half of 2013, giving its customers a unified networking product within its data-center strategy.
- Cisco faces a more explicit VMware networking offering after buying VCider to advance its own distributed-cloud vision.
Second-order effects
- VMware's OpenStack backing becomes more strategically consequential: customers assessing cloud infrastructure can compare an open initiative with VMware's integrated virtualization-and-networking approach.
- Networking vendors competing for virtualized data centers must answer a product framing in which network control is delivered as software alongside cloud infrastructure.
Third-order effects
- If VMware's integrated approach gains adoption, software-defined data centers will shift competitive leverage from standalone network hardware toward the software layers that coordinate compute, cloud and networking.
- The Cisco-VMware responses point to infrastructure competition increasingly being shaped by acquisitions and product integration around software-defined networking.
The trend: Data-center networking is being repositioned as a software-controlled layer within broader cloud and virtualization platforms.